Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-12-01
Would we return
Would we return?
HILDA'S LOVER.

IEe Sc ptemD6rS sun, SbraylnR through
the vine covered corner of a Newport
piazza, nickered over two fngers-a
mans and girls. A pretty enough pic
ture they made. She In Der flmy laces
In the wide arm chair, and he III velvet
jacket and knickerbockers, stretched
lazily at her feet, while beyond lay the
broad horizontal bands of white sand,
purple ocean and turquoise sky.
The girl slowly closed the blue and gold
volume of Tennyson from which she had
been reading, and dreamily repeated, half
aloud:
Ask me no more; the moon may draw
the sea,
The clouds may stoop from heaven aid
take the shape
With fold TO fold of mountain or of
Grape,
thee,
Ask me no more!
''Do you think he ought to have asked
her again after that?" she continued.
The young man tossed pebble out
over the water and waited to see the last
ripple vanish before he replied, 81 have
no doubt that he did ask her again, and
I have no doubt that she would have been
Hilda Grey looked down at the speaker
with smile, half vexed, half amused.
She was Boston girl, and Eustace Payne
was a New York man, and, therefore, as
she told herself, it was case of imper.
feet sym pathies. The old battle of realism
versus idealism was perpetually waging
between them. Payne ridiculed the Con-
cord philosophers and burlesqued their
philosophy. He loudly declared, not that
he could not understand Harris, which
would have been received as a tribute,
but that Harris did not know what he
meaMt himself; Emerson he said, was
saved by sense of humor which made
him half a New Yorker. The mind cure
he called Boston witchcraft, and pro.
fessed to think it as dangerous as the
Salem delusion of old.
Their discords often came when, as
now, she was led on to speak out her psy-
Geological questionings. In Eustace
Payne's mind, to produce ones serious
thoughts and deep convictions in ordi-
nary conversation was like a woman's
wearing diamond earnings to market jas
tifying suspicion that they were paste,
and branding the owner as to the world
of culture. To Hilda Grey, on the other
hand, it seemed that all talk, to be good
for anything, must dig down into the
verities, and it was with shade of i'm
patience in her tone that she took up the
thread of conversation.
II am not discussing the heroines
feelings. The question is, should you
think man would care to marry a wo-
man who wanted not to love him!"
''Certainiy not, unless her unwilling
ness could be overcome"
"a lawyers bubble. Let me if posi-
BILE make my idea clear enough for your
comprehension. mean would a wo-
mans determination not TO care for you
be an incentive to you TO strive to win
her love? [ say you meaning tn aver
age man."
Payne slowly drew himself up to his
six feet of height, and with his cap waved
mock salute as he answered:
IT'S an old maxim of the schools
That dattery's the foodsof fools.
But if you consider me competent to
speak for the average man, l should say,
Yes, In a certain way. [ do not care for
pigeon shooting; l prefer shyer game;
and / can understand that pique, that
last infrmity of noble minds might lend
an added zest to courtship; but after ALL
the motive of her aversion in marrying
me would make all the difference ia the
world. If. for instance, it were disparity
of rank Or fortune, 7 confess have no
fancy for playing Tartram to any Lady
Geraldine"
Excellent! Here we have the gauge of
the average man, and, behold, 1T is vanity.
Affection may go to the wall, but his pre-
cious self esteem must not be wounded.
So long as your pride would be gratifed
by conquering her indifference you would
strive for her regard like politician for
office, but if winning her acceptance of
her fortune, you perfer to button up your
coat over your bursting heart, and, as
you would magni6cently call it, conquer
your passion as / should say, sacrifice
yourself and on the alter of vanity"
Panye unclaspe1 the knee which he
had been holding as he leaned back
against the pillar, and he stretched him
self out as to make his position as COM
Portable as possible for a long argument.
His face called to his aid the superior
smile which Hilda always found specially
aggravating, he made the somewhat irrel-
evant reply:
"Woman is generally brilliant, some
times inspired, seldom consecutive, and
never logical"
"Sententious age!''
ssSne bIazes up and goes out like the
electric lights on Fifth avenue, the hashes
of her illustrations only Illuminating the
darkness of her reasoning. Now that
you have finished your summary of the
average man, let me show you the flaws
in your argument, though it is like point
ing out the holes in a mosquito netting.
Let us go TO the situation of the poem,
imagining me as the hero and you as the
ideal woman mark my superior civility),
the heroine.
an the first place, then, wanting not to
I'VE me is not indifference. The very re-